


another life

by coalitiongirl_ficlets (coalitiongirl)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 4B, F/F, Heroes and Villains AU, Swan-Mills Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl_ficlets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rewrite of the alternate universe from Heroes and Villains- in which Regina and Henry go to find Emma in her tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	another life

In another reality, Regina the outlaw decides to go with Henry anyway. She isn’t interested in some ridiculous mission from a kid who’s lost his mind but yeah, he’s going to get himself killed, and she’s already fighting a peculiar fondness for him. (”I was named after your dad,” Henry insists, and he shakes his head when Regina tells him she’d never known her father.)

So they steal a boat. Henry thinks they should bring along one of the deckhands but Regina is only so tolerant of him and his stories and  _Operation Mongoose._ (”Why Mongoose?” she demands. He says “Mongooses eat cobras. You and Mom- my other mom- you had a kind of angry thing going on when we named it.” All his answers are half-answers that make her oddly wistful for a life that’s never truly existed.)

And they make it across the water to an island tower and they knock out a few guards and throw open a door and there  _she_ is, a woman wild-eyed and desperate who lies on the floor and stares at them with a gaze so needy that Regina takes a step back. “Henry,” she gasps. “Regina.” (Henry runs to her and holds her tightly and Regina watches, the wistfulness rising again, and the woman whispers her name again over Henry’s shoulder.)

”How long were you locked up in there?” Henry is asking, full of questions as they sail back home. “How much time passed for you?” The woman-  _Emma_ , Henry’s other mother, who trips over her dress and has hair untamed enough that Regina makes a brusque comment about it- she’s pained and avoids his eyes when she responds.  _A while. (_ Regina feels the weight of it as only another victim of Snow White could, and she swiftly turns Henry’s attention to the sea ahead as Emma grips the rail with fingers that turn white.)

They don’t have much time until this wedding comes to pass and Regina stops the force of nature that is her supposed son as he attempts to herd her off the ship. “Your mother isn’t going anywhere like _that,_ ” she says, gesturing at her mess of hair and dress, and Henry scampers off to find new clothes and Regina settles down with a basin of water and Emma’s hair. (Emma is grouchy and whines through every knot and Regina snaps back, in no mood to play mother to either of these  _children._ )

“So how long  _were_ you in that tower?” Regina had heard of her years before, just when she’d begun running from Snow. Emma must have been locked up for years in there, only a dragon for company, and Regina aches with more compassion than she’d ever allowed herself since she’d run. (Emma watches her with glowing eyes that make Regina squirm and says,  _You’re not that different than her. I thought…but you’re still Regina._ Regina braids back Emma’s hair and her fingers brush against Emma’s cheek, slow and reassuring and absolutely accidental.)

Snow is waiting for them when they dock and her eyes flicker from Regina to Henry and then back to Regina as though torn which of them to kill first. Emma speaks about hope and love and Snow’s eyes shutter and Regina  _knows_ , this has all been doomed mission from the start and now she’s going to lose these two… _burdens_ , that’s all they are, burdens to her– (It takes three dwarves to restrain Henry, she notes with odd pride, but Emma folds into the Huntsman’s arms as though she’s already resigned to defeat.)

”Use your magic!” Henry is shouting from where he’s being held. “I don’t have magic!” she snarls back, panic rising. “You do!” Henry insists. “Yours was never about being a savior. Isaac couldn’t take it from you!” The Huntsman raises his sword to Emma’s neck and Emma looks brokenhearted, incapable of fighting back. Henry breaks free and runs at her and Snow readies a fireball and hurls it his way and Regina  _hopes, hopes,_ runs to block him and the fireball slams into her and the world turns white around her. (The light that pours from her chest is impossible, Henry can’t be right, not about this, not about anything. And yet.)

Emma begins to fight again, jolted back to the present, and they flee the scene together, Regina’s chest hot and warm in alien ways from that exposure to magic. Emma’s holding one of her hands and Henry’s holding the other and this is absurd, this vision of  _family._ She’s an outlaw in the woods and she’s never had a family, and none of this is permanent. (”Yeah,” Emma says when she mutters that. “I thought that, too.” Emma knows too much about abandoned orphans who learn to be tough, unravelled by a boy who claims to be their son. Regina watches her as she speaks, her hand warm in Regina’s.) 

The wedding comes and there’s another to-do, a man with magic sent to stop them. Emma fights him with a sword and Henry urges her toward the door of the church where Robin Hood is wedding Zelena and Regina hesitates at the door, spins around and fires a single arrow at the man as he swings a final blow at Emma. (She screams at the same instant as Henry when Emma drops to the ground, the wedding forgotten at the sight of the bloody gash across Emma’s chest.  _No, no, no_ , she chants, and Henry is sobbing and she holds him tight.)

They ease Emma down onto a few bags of flour and Regina cleans the wound while Henry listens to Emma’s heartbeat, her wrist pressed to his ear as he slumps on the ground. “The wedding bells rang,” Regina ventures. “I don’t care about any of that anymore,” Henry says dully. Regina tries calling forth that magic again but this time it’s stubborn and she’s straining with all her might and only sparks emerge from her hand. (She doesn’t stop trying until her whole body is worn out from the strain and she’s slumped over on the ground beside Henry, her head leaning against Emma’s thigh as she keeps her hand steady against Emma’s chest.)

Emma says, “Regina.” “No,” Regina says stubbornly. “You’re not dying.” Emma smiles. (Regina doesn’t know what this connection is between them, why she’s so taken with Emma when she barely knows her, but it isn’t like the breathless banter she’d had with Robin Hood. It’s built on a past that she’s beginning to think must be real.  _Across realms and lands and stories, and somehow here they still are._ Emma and Henry feel like life and joy and happiness and a dozen things she’d never believed in before a boy had charged into her life and sent her on a heroic quest.) 

Except Emma  _is_ dying, nothing in Regina’s life is permanent, not even family. And Regina’s vision clouds up until tears are coming fast and free and she turns blindly-  _Henry, I have to hold Henry_ \- and wraps their son in her arms. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and in a moment of daring, of recognition of a long-gone link, she ducks her head and kisses Emma softly on the lips. (Emma’s lips twitch at that and she breathes something like  _finally,_ and Regina doesn’t understand until she’s curled up against Emma’s side with Henry on a hard Storybrooke sidewalk and there’s a glow the color of true love’s kiss around them.)

Emma says out loud, “ _Finally_ ,” and she’s laughing, her face bright and glowing like she’d never been hurt, and Regina doesn’t move.  _Finally_ , she thinks, and it comes with the certainty of years of memories.  _Finally,_ and she kisses Emma again. (Emma kisses her back, sitting up so she can tug Regina closer and they’re both still wet-eyed with what feels like love and family and goddamned relief that they’re finally here.  _Finally,_ Henry and Emma and Regina _._ )


End file.
